In 2013, Reifenhäuser introduced the high-performance extrusion lines for PET thermoforming sheets with the patented mechatronic polishing stacks of the MIREX-MT-V design series. Now Reifenhäuser introduces the next generation of this line type. 

Reifenhäuser Combines Improved Components 

Industrie 4.0

Polyethylenterephthalat

Extrusionswerkzeuge

Extrusion

Flachfolien- und Plattenextrusion

Folien

Verpackungsmaterial

New Generation of PET Thermoforming Sheet Lines 

Together with partners, Brückner Maschinenbau is researching viable film solutions for a more sustainable future.

Designed with recycling in mind: These crisp bags made of BOPP can be recycled into new film with 80 % recycled content. 

16:9

Together with partners, Brückner Maschinenbau is researching viable film solutions for a more sustainable future. 

Schröder, Susanne

Flachfolienanlagen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Extrusionsanlagen

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Sustainability Meets Technology

The composite materials currently used in cars are often not recyclable. Mercedes has therefore recently started using mono-material sandwiches.

As a reference part for the natural fiber-based multi-material approach used in series production and the recyclable PET mono-material sandwich, the bending-loaded door pocket of the door panel of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class was used.

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

Leichtbau

Thermoplaste

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

Andere Werkstoffe

Kreislaufwirtschaft

Not Only Lightweight,  But Also Recyclable

The packaging world of the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries has long been balancing a tension between sustainable claims and regulatory reality.

Extrusion of PE films in the ISO7 cleanroom at Peku Folien. Recyclates are not permitted here, but certified bioplastics are.

For some time now, the packaging world of the medical device and pharmaceutical industries has been juggling sustainable aspirations and regulatory realities. Demand, reality and outlook

Verpackungsmittel aus Kunststoffen

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Halbzeuge und Zwischenprodukte

Kunststoff-Halbzeuge

Medizinprodukte

Medizintechnik

Claim, Reality, and Outlook

MDO (machine direction orientation) can be used for the production of polymer films that have unique properties. By using an optimized machine and control technology, existing MDO applications can be produced much more efficiently and new areas opened up. 

Selective Modification of Film Properties through Uniaxial Stretching 

Blasfolienextrusion

Stretching the Limits  

Despite fluctuations in the quality of input materials, end products are expected to meet high quality standards, especially in the food sector. The wide range of products available on the fast-paced global PET packaging market calls for a high degree of versatility on the part of plastics converters. For this reason, it is necessary to have lines which have a short process chain capable of producing good quality and which can respond rapidly to different requirements. 

Producing Sheet from Different  Input Materials 

Polyethylen

Extrusions-Zubehör

À la Carte Input 

Even though economical use of material is a perennial theme, the needs of plastics processors change with the requirements of the times. Recycling of post-consumer packaging is a great challenge at present. An Italian manufacturer has developed a two-stage system that can produce films suitable for food contact without intermediate pelletizing. We took a look around the company headquarters. 

Direct Recycling of PET Flakes into Food-Grade Film 

Extruder

Blaswerkzeuge

Systems like a Symphony 

The increasing volume of plastic waste and the growing pollution of the oceans by such waste have brought the sustainable handling of plastic products into the focus of society and politics. Both recycling and bioplastics can be a part of a strategy for greater sustainability, but they are not free of side effects. In order to avoid irrational decisions, it is important to assess their effects comprehensively.

If a film is used in the packaging sector, it should be made of at least a recycled material – leading to the common opinion that assumes that materials in circulation are automatically more sustainable. However, a detailed life cycle analysis, which considers all relevant energy and material flows on the basis of a generally valid calculation method, shows that it is not that simple

3D View of Sustainability

Logistik

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Nachhaltigkeit

Folienblasanlagen

Why Recycled Films Are Not Necessarily Sustainable

With innovations in metrology, processing and automation, the film industry is again pursuing the goal of process optimization and digitalization this year. But efficiency and sustainability are also the focus of the machine manufacturers, who will be serving up pioneering innovations at K 2019.

The Circular Economy – Sustainable yet Efficient?

Verpackungstechnik

Folienabzug- und -aufwickelmaschinen

Faserverarbeitung

Werkzeuge für die Kunststoffverarbeitung

Folienreckanlagen

A Perfect Concept All Round

A team from the Fraunhofer IAP has developed a flexible and recyclable plastic film material based on polylactide (PLA) bioplastic. Their efforts have earned the researchers the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize for 2024.

The researchers in their lab: Dr. Antje Lieske, Dr. Benjamín Rodríguez and André Gomoll from Fraunhofer IAP (from left to right).

Biokunststoffe

New Plastic Film Material Made from PLA Bioplastic

Masterpress has developed polyolefin shrink sleeves for polypropylene dairy cups. Both materials can be recycled together.

Masterpress’ hybrid flexo presses where sustainable shrink sleeve label solutions are produced. 

Kunststoff-Verpackungsmaschine

Sondermaschinen

Two Materials, One Recycling Stream

The Multipeel family from Südpack Verpackungen GmbH & Co KG, Ochsenhausen, Germany, has a new member: The crystal-clear top film Multipeel xPET can be securely sealed to all PET trays and films (CPET, APET) at temperatures starting at 145°C. An innovation in resealing films, it works perfectly with crystalline PET treated with anti-block or silicone. 

Crystal-Clear and Resealable 

Multipeel xPET Films 

Alpla has invested EUR 60 million in a new recycling plant in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. From 2025, the division will produce up to 35,000 t of recycled PET per year.

Grand opening of the Alpla recycling plant in Ballito. Pictured (from left): Gerhard Meyringer, Managing Director Alplarecycling South Africa, Nicholas Pule, Deputy Director Department of Trade and Industry Republic of South Africa, Romana Königsbrun, Austrian Ambassador to South Africa, Günther Lehner, Chairman Alpla Group, Bevlen Sudhu, Commercial Director Alplarecycling South Africa, Dietmar Marin, Managing Director Alplarecycling Division.

Alpla Opens Recycling Plant in South Africa

Revalyu Resources is commissioning a second recycling plant in India. The new plant will be able to process more than 35 million used PET bottles a day.

The Indian plastics recycler has put a second PET recycling plant into operation at its site in Nashik.

Unternehmen

kunststoffe.de

Revalyu Resources Doubles Capacity

Oerlikon Barmag und Evonik wollen gemeinsam Technologie- und Prozesslösungen für das chemische Recycling von PET entwickeln und vermarkten.

Oerlikon Barmag and Evonik have announced their cooperation to promote chemical recycling of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste.

Strategic Partnership in the Market for Chemically Recycled PET

Unique PET Tray-to-Tray Recycling in a Single Extrusion Step

The availability of PET bottle flake outside the beverage sector is expected to decline continuously in the coming years. Tray-to-tray recycling can close this gap and succeeds particularly easily with a new extruder.

The recycling of regrind from post-consumer PET trays to new sheet for PET trays presents challenges for the recycling process:

<ul><li>Unlike PET bottle flake, the intrinsic viscosity of the regrind from PET trays is too low to permit direct recycling on a conventional sheet extrusion line.</li><li>The sources of post-consumer PET trays is not as controlled as with PET bottle flake and there is a wide range of different types of trays in circulation, therefore the quality and property of the regrind varies considerably.</li><li>It is unavoidable, that tray regrind will be cross – contaminated with other polymers, as it is difficult to completely exclude other polymers, especially due to co-extruded or laminated layers.</li><li>For food contact applications, efficient decontamination of the polymer (e.g. EFSA, FDA) for monofilm structures is extremely important.</li><li>The material must be efficiently purified but at the same time, the processing should be as gentle as possible if the material is to be processed in a continuous closed loop and if the product quality is to be guaranteed.</li></ul>

Extruder with High Decontamination Capacity

For this demanding process of tray-to-tray recycling, Gneuss has developed the innovative MRSjump Extruder. The new MRSjump Extruder combines the high decontamination performance of the MRS degassing extruder, which has been well established over the past decades, with a viscosity boost:

<ul><li>The MRSjump extrusion process does not necessitate any pre- or post-treatment of the input material, such as crystallisation or pre-drying of the recycled material or an IV boost in a solid state polycondensation (SSP).</li><li>The high degassing efficiency of the MRSjump Extruder makes it possible to comply with EFSA and FDA limits without time- and cost-intensive upstream or downstream material treatment.</li><li>The simple set-up of the MRSjump direct extrusion process avoids the combination of different material treatments prior or subsequent to extrusion and resulting interface problems.</li><li>Thanks to the short process chain, the melt remains within a narrow, defined residence time spectrum. The thermal and mechanical stress on the material is kept low. This results in excellent mechanical and optical sheet properties.</li><li>The compact design of the MRSjump Extrusion System means that it has a small footprint and compared with other concepts available on the market, it can easily be retrofitted to an existing sheet line within the same spare requirements as an existing conventional extruder.</li><li>The MRSjump Extruder can processes a wide range of input materials, from regrind from mono- and multi-layer trays to material combinations which would stick together in a conventional thermal pre-treatment process (e.g. sheet regrind from PET/PE, GAG, certain copolymers).</li><li>In combination with the Gneuss Rotary Filtration Technology, a high melt purity is guaranteed.</li><li>Quality assurance is also provided by optional systems for measuring melt viscosity and optical properties (colour and transparency measurement).</li></ul>

With the innovative MRSjump Extruder Gneuss offers an optimum solution for post-consumer tray-to-tray recycling, which meets all requirements of completely circular modern food packaging.

Recycling and decontamination are for the first time made possible with the MRSjump Extruder, within one single extrusion step without upstream or downstream material treatment steps. This opens up new possibilities for the recycling of tray regrind.

Gneuß Kunststofftechnik GmbH  

https://www.gneuss.com

MRS extruder screw with multi-rotation section for efficient degassing and decontamination

Produkt Gneuß 24.11.2020

Tray-to-Tray Film Recycling Line with the MRSjump Extruder

In contrast to PET bottle flake, the origin of post-consumer PET trays is not so well controlled, which is why the quality and properties of the flake vary considerably

Polyester

Standardkunststoffe

issue 05/2025

issue 04/2025

issue 03/2025

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